Lessons

Lesson Info

Submitting Work to Publications

The next kind of big chunk is publications and so I'm talking about physical publications magazines also online publications was which have been probably the chief most amazing thing that's happened in my career because people click on these things and they just go viral you know how these things work with social networking and that sort of thing but it's somewhat one person sees it one person publishes it and ten thousand people see the work after that and so there's kind of nothing better then getting your work in front of people's faces then publications also gallerist ce who are looking for new talent are looking at these magazines they're looking at these thes photo blog's and things like that looking for the next great person every gallery wants the next photo genius that's what they're looking for they want somebody who's going to make it big right and they're going to be the first gallery that represented that person so this is great it's great for you to get an audience and co...

llectors look at these magazines too but also galleries and museums and everybody looks at this stuff so yeah these gallery or these magazines online magazines don't pay no they don't is that a consideration some of them dio I mean last month I got it at an article in a magazine chinese magazine they paid for the images but it is rare it's more like you're getting kind of free promotion advertising so it's worthwhile absolutely strongly thank you khun dio yes yes because it gets you work in front of so many people and can you use that on your resume oh yes were going I'm going to show you my resume my cv later but absolutely list your exhibition history first and then your publication history it really really helps people want to know gallerist want to know that your work is interesting to folks it's a big big help yeah so submission process to publications is very similar to the gallery submission process you go online look att the publication look at their submission tab and almost every magazine and publication or online blogger has a submission process they're all different so it's going to take you some time like I mean everybody wants a different file size everybody wants on artist statement that's this many words well and then this one wants two hundred fifty whereas this one wants five hundred words so yeah every time you said that something you're sitting in front of computer for an hour maybe getting everything prepared but because it's so worth it and don't be a chicken just submit the work I mean I have so many folks saying well I'm not ready I'm not right I've got this body of work but I'm nervous it's not good enough or something just submit the work once you've got something that's you know a unified body of work submitted submit the work so this is just a few print publications that have happened in the recent history and again this goes out to a big big audience and so some of these this is just a couple on one in korea when in china no all over the world so that it expands your audience so much internationally if you can get something in a magazine so where where the heck do you submit right here is just a list of kind of my favorite photography journals um these air print magazines, print publications and all of them have a submission process for emerging artists so go on their website click on the tab and follow the instructions to the letter and the work you're going to need an artist's statement probably an artist bio show you all this stuff later maybe a cv uh and of course the work um also this is a great link just that f stop magazine dot com slash links there's a host of magazines journals on there that you can submit teo and so you're doing the same thing you're clicking on the journal looking at the magazine and seeing if you think your work is going to fit into what kind of thing they talk about some, uh very pacific specific and it's all digital photography or it's all black and white I'm having an article coming out in black and white magazine next week so they can't show testament because its color right medic to this black white very specific narrow things but that could be really good for you if you are a film shooter, for instance so look at all the stuff that's just for alternative processing film and you've got an audience they're committed audience in fact, okay? So online photography journals again these air kind of my favorite because so many people see this stuff and this is just the kind of a short list and there are so many out there got a really, really great but again just submit online send them what theywant to see and I mean amazing things can happen from just one article when I went to photo fest my very first time with my portfolio baptism, I had an article published in an online journal in mexico and that one article had probably twenty thirty contacts came from that just because something people saw it so you'd never know it was owned zero was that magazine and they're great so artist calls in contest this is kind of the third leg of this process submission process and again, this is a huge one, so I'm going to show you some websites in a minute that have open artist calls all the time but contest are great too because you're submitting we will work once and there maybe fifty or sixty or two hundred with photo lucinda and I'll show you that lips by two it's two hundred jurors two hundred of them so even if you don't win, which you know likely, you won't because there's only one winner and that's okay, but two hundred jurors who are publishers gallerist museum curator sze publicists are going to see your work so it's not just a random population, you focus that energy to people who are really plugged in in this industry, and they're going to see the work so it's great and it's worth the interest, see whatever it is to do something where there are a lot of jurors like that, so you have submit to these things I've got so many contacts and even from things that I don't win, people who have seen the work and are really interested in showing it so you just never know. So here's a good example of that photo center northwest this's just twitter on dh also just a note you're welcome to follow me on twitter because look at who I follow because pretty much everybody I follow is galleries, photo centers, publications and all the time, every single day there's four or five tweets on there about places to submit work tio new contests, new gallery of exhibitions so these are just a couple photo center northwest just the other day is telling you the long shot darkroom prints emissions coming in so this is probably for prints but our our film photographers darkroom workers so there's you just click on it and there you are, there's a really cool places submit there's another one you eugene smith fund this came up in twitter the other day, and then you just I mean, there are so many there are just so many, especially looking bee looking for things that really fit the nature of your work. So if you are a film person or you're a digital person or your black and white person or whatever it is, I submit to that stuff because it really works now I'm saying all this submit your work to make it work, but the work needs to be good, right? So and I know earlier I said, just submit even if you if you're timid, but it needs to be good quality and it needs to be finished in fully really realized so yeah, if you've got it fully realized that the work okay, so there's my twitter information and again, I've got all kinds of stuff on there, all kinds of people I follow that you are welcome to follow along with me and get all these links to these new submission pages, so one of my favorite web sites is cafe that call for artists you can go on this website make yourself an account of what I like about it is you just enter your portfolio you upload your portfolio once with its just digital upload and your artist's statement your c v your bio all that you upload all that stuff once and then you khun search here so if I want a key word I could say alternative process or if I don't have a specific thing just photography eligibility international you khun plug in national or local even your city and stuff so it concerts for something near you if you want you can tell it whether you want to pay a fee or not and then it it gives you a host of stuff for you to submit to a lot of his exhibitions and some of its publications and stuff like that so it's it's pretty it's pretty amazing actually you get tons and tons of things to submit teo and I submit stuff all the time I look at this all the time for things that I think would be interesting and get me a good audience so try cafe uh cafe just for photography or is over all kinds of art no it's for everything it's for every type of studio art so I mean I found a show on here a couple months ago it was a fiber art show I was like I'm a fiber artist I'm proper arrest I made well things so and I did I mean so I was like well be consider a photograph of piece of fiber art I don't know I submitted to it and sure enough yeah they loved it so they showed testament in the fiber arts exhibition which is great for me because that's a completely new audience everybody else is so far has been photo so you just never know you know stick your neck out there try also just will google artist submissions photography about once a month and see what's out there is new and all the stuff comes up I mean all kinds of things and you do need to do your research and find out who these people are and if the gallery is or the publication or the organization is reputable but yeah I mean there's a lot lot of opportunity out there again people are looking for emerging artists and all this stuff is kind of that's what it's for it's to find new talent so yeah uh here's another website just I mean there's a bunch of these this was called called for our calls for art you do the same thing you just kind of search for new things you can search by genre that kind of stuff it's very similar to the cafe website you khun seeyou submissions all those things I just similar idea this is another one this is for exhibitions so featured calls for artists and I think this one is also interdisciplinary said all kinds of different art forms. If you're mixed media person, you know, that could be a good fit some of these that are looking for all kinds of different art. Another one another website, this one's international just great, and a lot of them are so it's the same deal, you just clicking on the tab and seeing what kind of exhibitions they've got, and again do your research look at the exhibition, make sure it's something that you want to be a part of and also just doesn't know it will tell you it's right on there that you are, maybe you're responsible for shipping, you might be responsible for framing and matting you may responsible for none of it, but it'll tell you pretty much kind of what you're investing financially. If you do get the exhibition's something you want to be prepared for, and I will be honest, when you're an emerging artist and you're starting out, most of these folks are gonna have you pay for framing and shipping a lot of calories. You pay the shipping, too, and they pay to ship it back to you or something like that, but there's gonna be another front investment? We're going to talk about framing and stuff later, but, yeah, you're building would you recommend? Do you go local, then international or do sometimes preferred doing international and working local because each of them could have different approaches to it? And, you know, you could be the market where there's a lot of competition and you may want to go international first, it's just part of it depends on where you live too, you know, living in boston vs something in new mexico for me, it's a pretty big difference, there's not a lot going on in new mexico, so if you live in a big city or something, I mean, starting locally could be could be the way to go, but if you live in like iowa, then maybe, you know, submitting to things online as much as possible is going to be this way to go. And I would just say do both do both because I mean, the bigger again, the bigger the audience, the better. So starting if you just start local and focus on that, you're going toe. I have a hard time finding a bigger audience and international forever. Yeah, I mean, but you're doing it online, so it doesn't require a whole lot of in financial commitment or anything, it just takes time, so yeah, just do both just advice. I should just another website that you could not draw it down you can send it to exhibitions and publications and things like that so there's a lot there's so many opportunities to get your work out there so many another one I submit something over this the other day we'll see what happens it was for a grant so this one also has grant applications and things like that which are all important as we talked about yesterday it never would have been able to make testament without the grant it there's just no way the grant allows you then too think bigger right? Because I mean who has twenty thousand dollars sitting around to put a project together? You don't so and even if you did that's that's kind of crazy right? But it allows you to think in that bigger space and create without limitations that's where the best works come from isn't it it takes money to make great work so grant applying for grants here um there's another one just call for entries and I think I'm just showing you all of this because sort of approve the point that there are just so many opportunities for new artists there are a lot it's not as hard as it is it seems to get your work out there I think the hardest part is just getting the work finished right getting it ready to submit that's the hard part once you're ready to do that you've got the world at your fingertips one of the most think successful things that happened for me was critical mass and this is open right now so if you have a body of work ready to submit submit the work s o this is one that has like two hundred jurors that the big award at the end is a book award so even if you win book and I'll show you this book here in a minute I want a few years ago and that's for medic came from um but you submit your body of work and again they're asking for a cohesive body of work um it shows you hear the inter details how to participate here's your f accuse registration fill out everything to the tee and make it happen but you've got so many people event seeing work so many people that are qualified that are gonna remember you so it's good great thing so I submitted a few years ago or something a tte first you don't submit a proposal you just submit the work and if they're interested in it as a book you'll submit book portfolio so this was kind of my original submission just we'll just the prince in fact and then they asked for a book proposal and we started working on this so I hadn't actually imagined medic as a book before until I entered critical mass which is pretty great because putting yourself out there in places like this thinking of your work in a new way, opened so many new doors for me. I'd never even thought about doing a book. So there you go. Um, this is my book proposal. We won't read through the entire thing, but it's there, basically on the left, on the right, is what what the content is. Why do you see the work? Is a book and that's a pretty big question. I mean, why is it better as a book or wise it interesting as a book, right? How do you see it as a books? And then I explain in words, because I didn't have a visual thing to show them. At that point, what I thought would be interesting, so I think, would be cool to put the photograph next to a hand written letter and explain how I think it might look inwards. Why do you think the boat will be successful? Basically, why would people want to own this thing? What makes it interesting? Um, specific ideas for content, layout. So I'm just kind of mapping out a few things that I think could be really interesting are really different, and then at the end, I put a short modified artist statement about the work again, even though they've seen it before, just reiterating what the work is about. And then why? Why do you think that they would be a good fit for your book and a good fit for your work as a publisher or editor? Basically that's kind of the the big bullet points of aa book proposal, whether it's for photo lucido for any other publisher, so a lot of folks will go to a portfolio review in search of a publisher for their book. You see almost half of the people at a review like that are people with mock ups of books looking for publishers. So if you're a book person you wanna have, I would think a written a written statement for your proposal if you're going to go something that in a portfolio review setting tio there's a lot of writing involved in being an artist, a lot, a lot more than I ever thought, so be prepared for that it's just kind of part of the deal, so this was the market by scent. Once they ask for a physical book portfolio, our book proposal, and so I actually had, and it took some money I had to have this thing made print I printed everything myself, took it to a binder and had the mock up. Put together so if you go to a port follower of you with a book proposal I recommend having this having a really beautiful put together a mock up of your book not just loose papers something bound that they can hold in their hands and really see what your idea is it takes some money but it's it's worth it and it's impressive it shows that that you've got your act together and that you really care about your your presentation, huh? I've had several books made personally on print on demand uh they're quite expensive but they are elegant. Do you recommend that? Yeah, I mean there's a lot of so print on demand you were telling me about yesterday and of course there's you know all that blurb and folks like that that find books and that's that's great and you can take something that's pre bound that's not super expensive if you do it that way and I know there is still investment but it's not as expensive is doing something that's hand stitched write it. I know it just partly depends on your budget and what you're willing to put forth to have a mock up of the book but if you're going to go and show it to fifty people I think makes something as beautiful as you can afford and this one was hand stitched and all that business yeah uh deciding to make uh that investment for a book what are the benefits that you see? So they're doing schools of thought way talked about this a lot went tio a conference in switzerland and it was a big big topic about artist's self publishing their books and so then you're really you're put your neck out there to self publish something that's got four, five hundred copies or something or, you know, really trying to get a publisher behind them and do it through a publisher, which is just harder, I mean, it it is, but then you've got the financial support of of the publisher and you've also got the reputation of the publisher there kind of vouching for you if that makes any sense so that you've got an audience who already has confidence in that publisher that the book is worth collecting so that is a little bit easier to sell that book once you've got it published so personally, if I wanted to publish a book, I would approach publishers rather than self publishing just because of the difference in investment. Yeah, so anyway, he was just kind of since snapshot of what it looked like the book proposal and it was a lot of work it's only a few weeks to put together writing had friends write the letters I photograph them, scan them and then I extracted little pieces of the machinery from photographs. And then I can put him on the left there and sent them the physical copy and they loved it. So here's the book itself after they published it. So slightly different then than my proposal, of course, because I mean there's a lot of back and forth about ideas and what we should do. Um, there's photo lucinda who printed it didn't cost me a penny that's the cool thing winning the contest. I didn't have to pay for this, so you can see there's the letters in there that's pretty close to my original idea. Publishers going toe, you know, have a lot to say about costs and things to produce the book. So putting on both sides of the paper was not an option cost wise so we didn't do the little cutouts on the side. You can see it's pretty close to the original design. The great thing is this book then got put into hundreds and hundreds of people and is sold through photo I in santa fe. So it's on amazon and everything else. So it's it's really helped. And I saw it on my website. If anybody wants to copy cheating, okay?